


long story short

by melodrama4ever



Category: Zero Escape (Video Games)
Genre: F/M, M/M, also College Junpei, also a little c-team ot3 for funsies, also bg alice/clover because gay people, and junpei didnt recognize him, basically i made everyone gay and theres nothing you can do about it., bg light/aoi because gay people, engagement party!, i absolutely REFUSE to tag this as junpei/aoi, it starts out as a bit of a groupchat fic, it turns into junpei just thinking about life (in a fun way not a sad way!), start as lol wouldnt it be funny if junpei and aoi hooked up in college, the answer is yes its fucking hilarious, this is very fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 14:14:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28689990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melodrama4ever/pseuds/melodrama4ever
Summary: Junpei knew that he caused this; he sent Sigma to ask Clover what happened. He knew Sigma, and he knew Clover, and he knew every single person currently in his house, gathered around his coffee table, listening to his best friend tell them embarrassing details of Junpei’s life. He should not have been surprised that the tale of how he accidentally hooked up with his fiancee's brother in college managed to momentarily unify almost every unwilling participant of a Junpei-attended death game. He was a little bit surprised, however, at how long the story was appearing to take. The whole ordeal of the original conversation only lasted like, five minutes, max. Junpei might have been drunk and embarrassed, but he knew how to keep time.
Relationships: Kurashiki Akane/Tenmyouji Junpei
Comments: 2
Kudos: 10





	long story short

**Author's Note:**

> i know that i am four years late to the zero escape party but please accept my "what if everyone from all the games met and was also gay" fic and go
> 
> title shamelessly ripped from "long story short" by taylor swift because i will die before i stop titling my fanfictions with taylor swift lyrics

**complex motives**  
Today at 2:13 PM

me: i think you guys should meet the second nonary game gang

Kanny <3  
junpei, that’s a horrible idea

Phi (Klim??)  
i agree w/ akane. 

Phi (Klim??)  
ur place next saturday

  
me: NICE

me: wait

me: me and kanny are in japan

me: most of u are in the states

me: ??

Sigma (definitely Klim)  
Can’t you just send one text like a normal person?

Phi (Klim??)  
no

me: no

Diana (not yet but soon Klim)  
We could make it an event! A celebration, of sorts.

me: of what

Diana (not yet but soon Klim)  
Junpei, didn’t you and Akane get engaged during the decision game? Have you celebrated yet?me: oh thats a good idea actually hold on

Sigma (definitely Klim)  
“Actually”?

me: akane sighed deeply but gave it the go ahead anyways

me: she said that if you guys can clear your schedules, she and her brother can handle travel arrangements

me: (that means she’s excited to see you)

Carlos <3  
Next Saturday?

Phi (Klim??)  
done. all of our schedules are free.

Carlos <3  
I’m actually working next Saturday.

Phi (Klim??)  
not anymore you’re not

me: awesome see you soon <3

  
**The World’s Most Intense Sudoku Club**  
Today at 4:36 PM

me: [engagement party.docx]

me: tl;dr me and akane are having an engagement party and you’re all coming

Clover!  
next week?

me: yes.

me: rsvp by wednesday. remember that i am not above using the gas mask

Aoi (the a stands for asshole)  
i want you dead

me: :)

All said and done, almost everybody made it. The only absent party was Mira, but that was entirely expected.   
“Hm,” Seven said after a quick headcount. “That’s odd. I thought there was nine of you.”   
“There are,” Junpei assured him. “One of us is, um, serving a life sentence for serial murder.”  
“For now!” Sean added cheerily.  
“Sean,” Carlos said, approaching the circle of conversation. “Don’t break Mira out of prison.”  
Seven looked between Sean and Carlos, seemingly trying to piece together how a twelve year old could pull-off a high stakes jailbreak.   
“Long story,” Junpei informed him. “Kid’s a robot.”  
“Technically, I’m a quantum computer. I’m much more impressive than a robot.”  
“Yeah. yeah.” Junpei smiled and rolled his eyes. “Same thing. Science crap.”  
Carlos piped in. “He’s also extremely strong. He was built by Zero-- uh, the last Zero-- to help set up and facilitate the Decision Game. There were, like, five hundred Seans.” He placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “But this one’s ours. Plus, Delta-- Zero-- destroyed the rest of the Seans when he destroyed the bunker the game happened in. Er, was supposed to happen in, I guess.”  
Just to be an asshole, Junpei added, “Oh! Yeah. The last Zero. His name was Delta. He was ancient. He also happened to be the son of that lovely couple over there.” He pointed to where Sigma and Diana were chatting with Clover and Light.   
Seven stared at him. “You’re fuckin’ with me.”  
“Nope,” Junpei assured him. “Everything has just gotten ten times weirder since the last time we saw each other.”  
Seven huffed. “I suppose I should’ve stopped being surprised at this shit when you announced that you were marrying the girl that kidnapped us.”  
Junpei’s eyes widened at the same time that Carlos proclaimed, “ _What_?”  
“Oh, God,” Junpei said. His air of smugness vanished immediately.   
“ _Akane was the first Zero?_ ”  
He glared at Seven. He realized that Seven had no reason to not mention Akane kidnapping them. He also realized that, maybe, they should’ve had this conversation with Carlos before putting him in a room full of people who were all still slightly (and rightfully) pissed off at the Kurashikis. Junpei’s gaze softened, but his voice was tense. “Not the first, but she did orchestrate the second Nonary game. Listen, we told you we knew who Zero was.”  
“Yeah! You said you knew who they were! Not that she _was_ Zero! Does… does everyone know?”  
Junpei did a mental roll-call. “Uh, Sigma does, so I assume the rest of D team does, too.”  
“Is that why you were mad at her at DCOM? And,” he turned to Seven, “and you’re just _in her house_?”  
Seven simply shrugged. “She’s a sweet gal. Didn’t even put bombs in us like she said. Her brother’s an ass, though.”  
“ _Bombs_?”  
“I-- Listen, Carlos, can we talk about this later?” Junpei asked. He didn’t think it was going to get anywhere, but he could at least try to postpone this conversation until after his engagement party.  
“Absolutely not!”  
Junpei put his head in his hands and sighed. “Hold on.” He disappeared into the small crowd.  
  
Once Junpei left, Seven grimaced. “Didn’t mean to open that can of worms.”  
Carlos stared into space. “Sean?” He prompted. “Did you know?”  
“Vaguely.” Sean shrugged. “Besides, I don’t think she _killed_ anyone.”  
“No one that didn’t have it coming,” Seven offered.  
“Jesus Christ.” Carlos brought a hand up to hold his forehead.  
After a beat of silence, the three of them caught a glimpse of Junpei leading Akane through the room. As the two got closer, they heard Akane say, “I told you this wasn’t a good idea, Jumpy.”  
“Not the time,” Junpei grumbled as he approached the group. He grabbed Carlos’ hand and turned towards the stairs.   
“Where are we going?” Carlos asked.  
“To talk.”  
As Junpei led the rest of C team up the stairs, Akane asked Carlos if he had ever heard of Schrodinger’s Cat. Carlos gave her a perplexed and very irritated look, and then the door shut behind them.

“Okay,” Clover said to Phi. “Explain again how you’re all related.”  
Phi let out a sigh. “Do I have to?”  
Clover hiccuped. “Yes.”  
Before Phi could launch into the night’s third explanation of the Klim family tree, Alice approached them. Phi silently thanked her for saving her from explaining that, yeah, Sigma and Diana were her parents, and Delta was technically her brother, but time travel had kinda fucked it all up. She didn’t think Clover was anywhere near sober enough to understand and herself put together enough to explain again.  
Alice spoke. “Has anyone seen Akane? I wanted to discuss a possible Crash Keys SOIS collaboration.”  
Next to Clover, her brother Light spoke up. “I believe I saw Junpei take her away.”  
Alice’s face scrunched up in confusion. “You _saw…_?” Phi remembered hearing that Light was blind. She joined in Alice’s confusion.  
Aoi, situated on Light’s other side, groaned. “Shut up. I told him that.” Light smiled at him. “He’s just a bastard.” Phi had never met Clover or Light before tonight. She had heard a lot about them, though; Aoi and Light were boyfriends. When Phi started officially working with Crash Keys, Phi and Aoi had developed a friendship forged by being the only obviously queer people in the room on most occasions. They got along surprisingly well. Draping one leg across Light’s lap, Aoi said, “I run Crash Keys, too.”  
“You’re holding a Solo cup full of straight vodka.”  
“And?”  
Alice sighed. “I would prefer to speak with Akane.”  
Aoi laughed. “Okay, well, good luck with that. I saw Junpei rush her and Carlos up the stairs, like, an hour ago.”  
“Oh, God,” Phi said. “I know they were flirting the whole game, but at their engagement party?”  
“Listen, man, I don’t really wanna think about it.” Aoi made a face like he bit into a lemon. Phi understood. No one liked to dwell on their sibling’s relationships for too long.   
“Wait, wait,” Clover said. “What do you guys mean?” Phi wiggled her eyebrows in response, and Clover seemed to understand, because she blurted out, “Junpei’s bi?”   
Aoi remained silent and downed the rest of the contents of his cup.   
“Ooooh-kay. I’ll take that as a yes.” Clover’s eyes widened. “Oh, my God. Do gay people just gravitate towards each other? Is the morphogentetic field just gay?’  
Alice patted Clover’s head and took the drink from her hand. “I mean, he certainly dresses like a lesbian.”  
Clover frowned. “I think we dress much better than Junpei.” Phi had to agree. In the year that she had known him, she had only seen Junpei wear either all black emo-adjacent outfits or multiple bright, clashing colors and patterns at once. Phi thought that she dressed at least a little more stylish than he.  
Junpei picked that moment to reemerge from upstairs and join the conversation. He must’ve barely caught Clover’s observation. “Hey, what? I dress fine!”  
“Junpei, even I know that your outfit last December was… questionable,” Light said.  
“Hey!” Junpei repeated. “You’re just listening to Clover and Aoi. That vest made me much more prepared than some of us,” he said in Aoi’s general direction. Aoi rolled his eyes. “Besides, what are you even talking about?”  
“We’re contemplating your bisexuality,” Aoi offered.  
“You’re-- what? What the hell? How did you even know about that?”  
Aoi blinked. “How did I _know_? Junpei, tell me you’re joking.”  
“What? Of course I’m not. I don’t think I told any of you guys yet.”   
Phi did not like where this was headed.  
“Junpei. We hooked up for two months in college.”  
Oh, Christ.  
Clover spit her drink out. “What?”  
“ _What_?” Junpei echoed.   
“Oh my God.” Aoi said. He stared at Junpei. “You’re not fucking serious.”   
“No, I-- oh, my God. That was you? Your hair was black! You weren’t even going by ‘Aoi’!”  
“Fucking obviously I had an alias! I was planning a death game!”   
Phi took a large gulp of her drink.   
“Jesus, did you know who I was?”  
“Fuck no. I ghosted you as soon as I put the dots together. Just thought Junpei was a common name.”  
“Oh, my God.” Junpei had his head in his hands. He left it there for a few seconds, then picked it back up with a quizzical look plastered on his face. “Wait. Still, how did you know?”  
“Know what?”  
“I’m bi,” Junpei clarified. They all stared at him.   
“Junpei, did you listen to anything either of you just said?” Phi asked. She couldn’t comprehend how he wasn’t connecting the dots. He was smarter than this. _Please,_ she thought. _Be smarter than this._  
“I did! I thought-- I mean, we never… I thought it was a friend thing!” Junpei was bright red. Phi didn’t think that she had ever met a smarter dumbass.   
“Oh my God.” Aoi whispered.   
“Aoi,” Clover said. “I think you got no homo-ed by your sister’s fiance for two months.” Phi smiled into her cup.  
“Shut up. Shut up. Oh my God, I am going to murder you.”  
“I can assure you that there are timelines where you have,” Junpei said.   
Aoi glared at him.   
“Alright, I’m shutting up. Kidnapping me in this timeline was enough.” Junpei put his hands up in a mock surrender. Phi chuckled into her cup at that, and Aoi turned his glare on her.  
Before Aoi could open his mouth to retort, Light interjected. “As amusing as this is, I must interrupt. By the sounds of your voices, I’m afraid that if either of you gets any more worked up, one of you will have an aneurism.”  
“Yeah. Alright.” Junpei took a deep breath. “I am leaving this conversation.” He took four steps towards the other side of the room, and half-turned around. “Oh, my God. That was so gay. I am so stupid.”  
Clover gave him a sympathetic look. “It’s okay, buddy. I once dated a girl for three months before I managed to ask her out. I thought we were just weirdly close.” Phi nodded. As funny as it was, this type of thing did happen; Phi still wasn’t sure if she had had a girlfriend in college or not.  
“How the hell-- fine.” Aoi was silenced by Light putting a hand on his knee. Junpei turned back around.  
As Junpei walked away, Clover complained, “Aw, we almost had an entire fruit salad.”  
Phi finally broke out into full laughter.

Junpei found Akane huddled in a corner with Sigma discussing quantum physics or something. He didn’t know. He was neither sober nor mentally prepared enough to join that conversation. His last one had drained at least half of his remaining mental energy. He plopped a kiss on Akane’s head and, in the process, overheard something about someone named Kyle.   
“Are you sure you sent him back?” Akane said, slipping an arm around Junpei’s waist.   
Sigma glanced from Junpei to Akane and back, unsure how to proceed. “I think I asked… someone else to do it.”  
“Do you mean me? You can say me, Sigma. He knows.”  
“Oh.” Junpei concluded that they were talking about the Radical-6 timeline. He forced his brain to focus on what they were saying, and not what he had just heard from the other group. “You’re talking about the bad future?”  
Sigma nodded.  
Junpei gave him an understanding nod. “I only hold grudges for death games and kidnappings I remember,” he said, leaning his head on top of Akane’s. He smiled; he and Akane had talked about the second Nonary Game in depth and Junpei had eventually come to peace with what happened. He wasn’t happy about it, but he understood it. Other people did not, which is why it was always enjoyable to watch them try to figure out if he was joking about it or not.   
(Junpei always convinced himself that he was joking.)  
The other man stared at him. “Good to know.” Sigma cleared his throat. “Yeah. I think I asked you to send him back. Or at least tell him where-- when-- to go.”  
“Oh, well,” Akane sighed. “I’m sure I tried my best. In the end, it’s up to him to decide if he wants to come or not. Although, I can’t imagine that he would be very eager to help you after everything that happened.”  
Sigma’s eyes darkened. “He would want to help _you_ , though.”  
“Perhaps. Or maybe not, after the game. You remember much more than I do.” She took a small sip of her drink and stared into her cup, like she was trying to access more of her other, older self’s memories. “Well. That’s enough technical talk for the night.”   
Junpei agreed wholeheartedly. He didn’t know much about that other timeline; he listened to the basics when Akane asked if he wanted to know about it, but he asked her to leave out the things that might upset him. He didn’t know anything about that other Junpei-- Tenmyouji, just his surname, as Sigma and Phi referred to him-- and he didn’t really think he wanted to. He already had a year of bad experiences and worse decisions under his belt; he wasn’t interested in forty-five years worth of them from himself in a different future. God, he really did not want to think about his post-apocalyptic geriatric alter-ego at his engagement party.  
He already had enough to think about at his engagement party.   
In his defense, college Junpei had a lot going on. He was behind in a lot of his classes and was constantly stressed about that. He didn’t even like his classes. He had been taking general stuff for two years because on the list of people that knew what they wanted to do with their lives, Junpei was not present. He had gone undeclared for two years. At the beginning of his third year, his advisor pulled him aside and let him know that he had to declare a major by the end of the month, otherwise he couldn’t get a degree, because there would be no degree to get. He had been anticipating this conversation; he knew that he had to pick _something_ , but he couldn’t picture himself doing… anything. His idea of what kind of career he wanted to pursue was as foggy as it was when he started college. He told his advisor as much, and she sighed and informed him that the electives he had taken up to that point could all count towards a bitcoin degree. Junpei didn’t even know that you could study bitcoin before that conversation. Still, he agreed, and declared a bitcoin major.   
He had no fucking idea what bitcoin was.   
Consequently, his classes were miserable. It turned out to be a lot of math. Junpei wasn’t great with math; he knew this. Other people knew this, too, apparently, because he was the only one in the death game to get a fucking _calculator_. (Although, looking back, that definitely could’ve been nepotism.) It also ended up relying very heavily on his knowledge of the stock market-- which he did not have. So, Junpei fell behind in his classes, reteaching himself the math he had slept through in prior classes and frantically Googling how the stock market worked. He ended up struggling to keep his grades afloat. He had always had good grades growing up and in most of his classes at university. He just had trouble paying attention to boring stuff… like bitcoin. And he was not feeling great about his grades tanking. He hadn’t mentally prepared for that.   
On top of that, he decided that he had to switch his major as soon as he could. He spent hours trying to picture himself studying literally anything else, to no avail. He was at a loss.   
So, Junpei was really stressed; he had a lot going on at the moment. And, hey, if he had sometimes made out with the mysterious dude from the bar-- why not? He didn’t have the time for a sexuality crisis. He was having too many crises already. Fall 2028 semester Junpei decided to leave figuring your sexuality out for Spring 2029 semester Junpei’s to-do list.  
And then, well-- he didn’t get his spring semester. The Nonary Game happened, and he dropped everything to look for Akane. That led him to DCOM and the Decision Game, where he found himself flirting with Carlos-- and, to his surprise, it was earnest flirting. By the time he could think too much into that, he had finally proposed to Akane.   
About a year after the game, between long hours of searching for the religious extremist, Junpei let himself sit down and have his long-awaited sexuality crisis. Akane had made a joke about him flirting with Carlos, and college came rushing back to him. He considered those factors, some questionably homoerotic friendships he’d had in highschool, and his general outlook towards guys in general and concluded that, yes, he was in fact bisexual.   
He let Akane know almost immediately. That had gone something like:

  
_Junpei zoned back into reality. He was sitting on his couch, in his living room, and his fiancee was picking a book up from the coffee table in front of him. “Hey, Kanny, I think I’m bi?”_  
_Akane looked at him quizzically. “Really?”_  
_Junpei was a little taken aback. “Yeah, I mean, that should be fine--”_  
_“Oh, no, no!” Akane said hurriedly. “No! Like, me too! Good for you! I just thought that we knew this already.”_  
_“Oh.” That was a lot of information to absorb at once._  
_“I mean, now that I think about it, I don’t exactly remember you telling me, but…,” she trailed off._  
_Junpei considered it. “I guess it’s a field thing?”_  
_Akane nodded. “Yeah.” She curled up next to him, rested her head on his shoulder, and opened her book._

  
After Akane had started reading, they both let the subject drop. It wasn’t that they ignored it; they both made appreciative comments about actors and actresses in shows and movies and joked about it and such. They just never made it a big deal. Junpei hadn’t really thought about that conversation since it happened.  
His thought process must’ve shown on his face, because Akane interrupted his stream of thoughts. “You okay, Jumpy?”  
“Yeah.” He took a breath. He considered his words, and decided that he had already dug himself a pretty deep hole that night. Sigma could be present for this. “It’s just… did you know?”  
Akane gave him the same look that she gave him when he came out. “Know what?”  
“Remember when I told you I was bi?”  
Her confusion deepened. “Yes.”  
“And remember how you said that you thought I was already out?”  
“I do recall that, yes.”  
“How did you know?”   
Akane looked at him. Her face showed a small emotional journey-- mostly borne of confusion-- and then her features settled into an expression of pure understanding. She glanced over behind her, to where Clover was making fun of Aoi for something, and then back at Junpei.   
Junpei’s mouth was open in a small o shape. “You knew!”  
Akane was visibly trying to suppress a smile. “I didn’t want to be the one to bring it up.”  
Sigma was not in on the loop. “What happened?”  
“I did some gay shit in college,” Junpei informed him.  
“As we all did.”  
Akane started to say something, but broke into a fit of giggles before she could get it out.   
Junpei rolled his eyes. “With her brother. _On accident_.”  
“‘On accident?’” Sigma questioned.  
“I didn’t know who he was!”  
“But he knew who you were…?”  
Akane calmed down enough to respond. “No,” she said. “I kind of kept him in the dark about our guest list for a while. As soon as I gave him the files on everyone, he freaked out and locked himself in his room for three hours.” She brought a hand to her mouth to stop herself from laughing. “He told me that night in pure panic. I thought it was the funniest thing in the world. I didn’t know that Junpei didn’t recognize him, however. I thought we all just silently agreed to never speak of it again.”  
Sigma was smiling, which wasn’t something that Junpei saw often. “That’s… pretty funny.”  
Through his embarrassment, Junpei could recognize that the situation was objectively funny. “I guess.”  
“How did you find out?” Sigma asked.  
Junpei sighed and felt his cheeks flush redder. He knew that this was something he was never going to live down. “I think Clover will have a much better time recounting the story than I will.”  
Sigma nodded and took that as his cue to walk away, and Akane fell into Junpei’s chest giggling.   
A realization dawned on him. “Oh, my God,” Junpei said. “You’re drunk.” Akane only got this bubbly and giggly when she was a few drinks in.   
“I am,” Akane agreed “It is our engagement party.”  
“And you were just discussing quantum physics and SHIFTing and the ass-complicated timeline with Sigma?”  
Akane nodded. “It was fine.”  
Junpei wrapped an arm around her and planted a kiss on her head. “You amaze me literally every single day.”  
He stood there for a few seconds, simply holding her; she was still shaking with laughter, and she was amazing. And he was going to marry her. They were standing in their living room, surrounded by their closest friends, celebrating their engagement.   
He knew that everything wasn’t quite finished yet. They still had to track down the extremist-- and even though no one said it, they all knew that they were going to have to kill him. They were getting closer to finding him every day; Akane hoped to have him dealt with by the end of the next year. And, hey, maybe they could just sic Mira on him.   
(They couldn’t, and he knew that; Mira was recovering, and he was pretty sure that her path to recovery shouldn’t include another murder. They would have to figure out how to neutralize the fanatic without, hopefully, traumatizing anyone more than they already were. But Junpei had honestly never met a more competent, resourceful group of people-- and he prayed he never did, because who knows what _that_ group would be capable of. They could figure it out.)  
Even with his life as batshit insane as it was-- and this was the best timeline-- he realized that he actually _belonged_.  
He never could pick a career in college, but this sort of work seemed to suit him. Quick-thinking, puzzle-solving, follow-the-lead kind of work. Unlike the detective agency, Crash Keys wasn’t involved in the grotesque activities that he used to see every day. They had one mission, and plenty of resources to get it done. Maybe some (or most) of those resources were questionable-- but Junpei didn’t have to see the questionable stuff. And he really, really did not want to.  
Crash Keys was also run and populated almost exclusively by his friends. They were a weird-ass group of people that never would have bonded save for the Nonary Games, but they were _his_ weird-ass group of people that wouldn’t have even looked at each other if not for extremely specific (and fucked up) circumstances. They made for a fun work environment.   
He realized that didn’t know what he was going to do after they found the extremist. He had no degree, and he couldn’t exactly put _escape room extraordinaire/ questionable detective/ trophy husband_ on his resume. But, he did know that whatever he ended up doing, he was going to be doing it because _he_ wanted to.   
Junpei hadn’t been given many choices in his life. He went to school, and followed that path until he was unknowingly puppeted around for a year. In that first week after DCOM, he realized-- pretty abruptly-- that he could just walk away. He could pack everything relating to the Nonary Games up and put it behind him. Junpei could re-enroll in school and continue living his life.   
Akane had even asked him: _“Jumpy, I know that you proposed to me in the bunker. But are you sure you really want that? I know that I hurt you, a lot, and I can’t imagine that you can just forgive and forget me kidnapping you and then running away. I know that I love you. I know that this is what I want. But I want to make sure that you’re not just doing this to prove a point to yourself, or because you feel you have to. I want you to want to.”_  
And Junpei had considered that. He really did. He spent a year chasing after Akane; was the ring just himself ensuring that he wouldn’t have to do that again? He realized that, while that might have been part of it initially, he wanted to live his life with her. They found that fit together like puzzle pieces. No, actually, that wasn’t completely right. Not puzzle pieces, because puzzle pieces complete each other. They were like a set of paintings; each perfectly capable of standing alone, but better together. The more time he spent with her, the less he could picture himself going back to live a life without her. He _decided_ to spend his life with her, and her with him.   
And he _decided_ to keep working with Crash Keys. He was on a path that, while not entirely chosen by him, was being paved stone-by-stone by him. He had control over his life.   
He loved it. He loved Akane, and he loved his friends. And maybe, through everything he had been through, and every unknown trial and tribulation that was sure to come, this sense of love and belonging made it all worth it.  
He felt a pair of familiar lips kiss his cheek. “Someone’s getting sappy,” his fiancee said.   
His fiancee, that he shared an unbreakable mental connection with. He laughed. “That’s eavesdropping.”  
“You reached out to me,” she told him.   
He probably did. He didn’t have full control over the field yet, and he tended to start projecting when he was feeling sentimental. “Yeah, well, I’m a sappy drunk. What can I say? It is our engagement party.”  
Akane hummed in agreement. “Let’s go celebrate it.” She looped her pinky finger through his and turned towards the couch, where Clover sat on the coffee table. The younger Field was speaking quickly and enthusiastically to a seemingly amused crowd. He did not need to guess what she was preaching about.  
Junpei knew that he caused this; he sent Sigma to ask Clover what happened. He knew Sigma, and he knew Clover, and he knew every single person currently in his house, gathered around his coffee table, listening to his best friend tell them embarrassing details of Junpei’s life. He should not have been surprised that the tale managed to momentarily unify almost every unwilling participant of a (Junpei-attended) death game. He was a little bit surprised, however, at how long the story was appearing to take. The whole ordeal only lasted like, five minutes, max. Junpei might have been drunk and embarrassed, but he knew how to keep time.  
“Guys,” Junpei interrupted. Clover graciously let him speak. “It cannot be that funny that every single one of you had to gather around my coffee table to listen to Clover tell you about it. For a while, too. What are you even talking about anymore?”  
“Oh, no worries,” Clover assured him. She seemed very bubbly. “We are definitely still talking about the time you hooked up with Aoi.” She flashed him a grin of the shit-eating kind.   
“To be fair, we did sort of pivot the topic to just ragging on Aoi.” Phi said.   
“Not entirely! We’re just…” Clover, for the first time that night, was at a loss for words. “Confused. You? Him?”  
Junpei saw Lotus, at the back of the small audience, shift her weight. “The idea is amusing because of how much you two hate each other.”  
She was right. Junpei knew that neither he nor Aoi could stand the other one. He didn’t know if it was some weird defensive thing over Akane or if they genuinely just clashed as people, but either way, they did not like each other. He was not afraid to admit that one of his favorite activities was just watching Aoi get pissed off by him simply existing. Aoi walked into a room that Junpei is currently occupying? Boom-- automatic eye roll. Akane mentioned Junpei in any conversation? Junpei received a death glare from Aoi that would be a little frightening if it wasn’t so amusing. And, yeah, he antagonized Aoi. He wasn’t proud of it. But he was also not going to stop giving Aoi a little mock-friendly wave whenever he entered a room.   
He honestly wasn’t sure where the dislike originated. Aoi just always seemed to be mad at him, so he mirrored Aoi’s energy. Although, with his newfound information, he sort of got the feeling that Aoi hated him-- at least a little bit-- because Junpei didn’t recognize him.   
Which, again, wasn’t Junpei’s fault. Aoi’s hair was black at the time and he was calling himself by some American name. So what if he didn’t remember every detail of the guy he hooked up with four time’s face? Sue him.   
“Can we move on?” Aoi asked. His face was extremely red. If Junpei hadn’t been equally as embarrassed, it would have been funny.   
(It was still a little funny.)  
“Please,” Junpei agreed. “College was weird. Plus, I found the cuter Kurashiki.”  
Akane, from her spot at Junpei’s side, stuck her tongue out at Aoi.  
“You’re not the cuter sibling,” Aoi told her.   
Akane shrugged.  
“Oof,” Clover said. “Light, you’re not even gonna try to defend your boyfriend?”  
“Unfortunately, I do not know who the cuter Kurashiki is. That would require me to be able to see.”  
Aoi sighed. “C’mon, man. You can’t even lie?”  
Light considered it. “I could.” He said nothing else.   
The group broke into laughter, and Junpei joined them.   
He had _such_ a weird-ass group of friends. But he loved them. 

  


**Author's Note:**

> this was a little bit all over the place tone wise but i enjoyed and you enjoyed it and that's all that matters. i adore the fact that light makes jokes about his disability because worm!! and i will write it into my stories forever. i do realize that this started as being "lol what if" and ended up being twenty pages, half of "lol what if" and the other half being "Junpei Contemplates Life" but i think i tied it in together pretty well! drop a kudos and a comment if u would like to because i love feedback <3


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